Location
| Location | Kilburn, North Yorkshire, UK |
| OS Grid Ref | SE516813 |
| Coordinates | Latitude: 54.224828N Longitude: 1.210053W |
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| Kilburn White Horse. |
In 1857 this hill figure was cut into the hillside on the initiative of Thomas Taylor, who had found inspiration from the white horses of Wiltshire and Uffington. It was completed in November 1857 by Taylor's friend, school master John Hodgson, his pupils and local volunteers.
The horse was created by removing topsoil to get to the underlying rock and then covering it with limestone chips. There was no endowment to scour the horse and it has nearly been lost many times. In 1925 there was a campaign in the Yorkshire Evening Standard which allowed the renewal of the horse. A memorial in the car park says: "The Kilburn "White Horse" This figure was cut in 1857 on the initiative of Thomas Taylor, a native of Kilburn in 1925 a restoration fund was subscribed by the readers of the Yorkshire Evening Post and the residue of £100 was invested to provide for the triennial grooming of the figure"
These days the restoration of the horse is managed by the White Horse Association charity and local farmers.
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| Memorial to the 1925 restoration of the white horse. |
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| A view from the horse. |
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| A closer look at the material used to fill the horse. |
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Google Street View
For more information check out the Hows website
Here
See Kilburn White Horse page on Megalithic.com for lots of links and maps, click
here.
How fascinating! I've never heard of this before! The Google street view was fun; also, the closer view of the material used to form the horse. What a view out over the land below! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks! This is one of the lesser known hill figures in the UK. I have a few more hill figures coming up of the next few months, which I hope you'll also like.
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